1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a gear drive apparatus for driving a gear, a driving device including the gear drive apparatus, and an image forming device including the gear drive apparatus.
The present application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-226925, filed on Oct. 6, 2010, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a driving device in an image forming device has a complicated gear structure with diversification of functions of the image forming device. In order to maintain the gear strength and wear resistance, various proposals of supplying a lubricant, such as grease to a plurality of gears of a driving device have been presented.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-180290 discloses a gear drive apparatus in which an inlet opening for supplying a lubricant is formed at an upper part of a housing, and a gear train in the drive apparatus is lubricated with the lubricant supplied from the inlet opening.
However, the gear drive apparatus of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-180290 has difficulty in efficiently applying the lubricant to all the tooth flanks of the gears.